A total of One Million, Two Hundred and Eighty Nine Thousand, Three Hundred and Forty-Four (1, 289, 344) units of suspected Pirated literary, musical, software and broadcast gadgets valued atOne Billion, Two Hundred and Sixteen Million, Five Hundred and Thirty-One Thousand, Six Hundred Naira (N1, 216, 531, 600) belonging to different copyrights holders has been confiscatedby the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) within the First and Second quarters (January to June) of 2017.

The seizures, carried out after Eighty (80) surveillancesand Twenty-Six (26) antipiracy operations saw the arrest of Forty-Eight(48)suspected pirates from across the country.

In the same vein, three(3) shipping Containers stacked with suspected pirated books, CDs, VCDs and DVDs valued at Two Hundred and Seventy-Five Million Naira (N275, 000, 000) were seized during a Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) and NCC joint inspection exercise in January 2017.

Meanwhile the Commission within the period under review, secured Two (2) Convictions against film and book pirates at the Federal High Court, Lagos;Instituted five (5) fresh cases against copyright infringers in different Federal High Court Jurisdiction across the Country; while also recording different level of progress in the prosecution of NCC suits across the country.

Director-General of the Commission, Mr. Afam Ezekude disclosed this in his office in Abuja stressing that the impounded items represent income that would have been lost by legitimate rights owners and taxable income revenue that would have been lost by the Federal government.

The Director-General, NCC assured that the Commission is committed to delivering on its mandate, adding that it has intensified its inspection and monitoring exercise in copyright piracy endemic outlets across the country.

Mary A. Adegbile

For: Director-General

Leave your comment

Make sure you enter the (*) required information where indicated. HTML code is not allowed.